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The Order 23 Job
Nate's team takes aim at Eddie Maranjian, an investment manager convicted of investment fraud by commandeering a whole hospital floor and staging the deadly outbreak of a virus. Clients * Maranjian's clients The Mark * Eddie Maranjian The Con *Ponzi Scheme Episode Notes * This episode introduces Belbridge, MA, a fictional suburb of Boston. The town features in several episodes of Leverage, and is known for its corrupt police department, and later corrupt mayor, Brad Culpepper III. * The episode features what are known as "affinity crimes", criminal activity where perpetrators use ethnic community ties to prey on their own community. The growing American Armenian community is known for its strong family ties and tightly knit community which is far more likely to trust one of its own than an outsider, making them ready victims of someone like Eddie Maranjian. * Nate and the team are able to convince Eddie he is ill in part because of what is known as a self-fulfilling prophesy. Germophobe Maranjian sees the germs he fears everywhere, as well as people becoming sick, and convinces himself he will become ill as well. In time, the idea becomes so powerful he develops real symptoms of the imaginary illness the team have created. * Melik Malkasian, who plays Eddie Maranjian, is a local Portland actor with a few modest credits who the show auditioned for the episode, the second produced following the production's move to Oregon. They were so impressed with the depth of the pool of local Portland actors throughout the run of the series that the brought fewer than half the number of actors they anticipated in from Los Angeles, and cast minor roles almost entirely from the Oregon acting community. * Following this episode, a widespread belief that Eliot's defense of the abused boy indicated that he had been abused as a child developed within the Leverage fan community. In response, producer/creator John Rogers was very clear in his blog that the scenes were simply designed to develop Eliot's more caring side, and expand on his beliefs about the treatment of people who are vulnerable, not to identify him as an abused child. Despite this, the belief remains among some fans. Trivia * Hardison and Eliot pretend to be Belbridge PD officers named Michaels and Crichton. This may be an homage to late author Michael Crichton, and his novel The Andromeda Strain. * When Hardison is explaining where Eddie Maranjian will be during his prison stay, he mentions that he'll be locked up with the executives from Enron. Eliot says "I hate those guys." This could be the Enron Energiefirm which illegal activities became official in 2001 and changed laws and brought negativity to President Bush. Or This may be in reference to a movie Christian Kane had a role in called "The Crooked E: The Unshredded Truth About Enron", where he played Brian Cruver, the author of the book the movie was based on. * Star Trek references are used in the plot, as Hardison uses Star Trek codes to communicate with Eliot, such as Hardison letting Eliot know he is in danger by paging Dr. Ralph O. Khan. Khan is an antagonist in the Star Trek universe, and featured in the Star Trek film "The Wrath of Khan". * This episode includes the first mention of neuro-linguistic programing. Category:Episodes Category:Season 2